The Teenies: History in the Making Featured

Even though lectures and exams finished back in May, it finally feels like the end of the semester; textbooks are being packed into boxes with sighs of relief, student houses are emptying and the recycling bins are filling up with empty cans from that results day celebration/commiseration party. But one thinks of what they will remember most about this year; the crazy fancy dress, nights out, mornings in, friends and random in-jokes. When I look back on my life, I’m pretty sure these are the things I’m going to reminisce over when I’m old with a cup of tea and a digestive in hand. All this nostalgia has got me thinking though, at the end of the decade we call ‘the teenies’ what are we going to remember when it comes to a close?

If you’re ever invited to a fancy dress party and you’re a bit stuck for an idea, you can always take the easy option by dressing up as a hippy, humming a few tunes by the Beatles and saying you’re from the sixties. Similarly you could perm your hair and dig out those fluorescent legwarmers and say you’re from the eighties. But in years to come, how will we be dressed at a teenies themed party?

If you grew up in the nineties I’m sure you’ll remember loving camouflage print, fluffy hair accessories and using so much hair gel that your hair looked a different colour than before. At the time all these things were the height of fashion and a must have, unless you wanted to be the kid no-one wanted to share Pogz with because you didn’t have a Steps T-shirt. I never remember thinking how weird any of them were at the time, but looking back I can’t help wondering - ‘oh god, what was I thinking?’ So twenty years from now, in the year 2030, will we be looking back at old photos and cringing ‘Good god! Why did I ever wear those jeggings?’

Nowadays our diverse and ever changing culture makes it hard to pinpoint what we’ll be remembered for. In a constantly evolving fashion industry, new trends seem to come and go faster than you can get to the shops. Similarly in the world of music, after a few million plays on the radio songs seem to disappear forever only to be replaced by a very similar sounding one, but guest starring a different rapper. In an impatient world where we expect improvements, sequels, advancements and new models in different colours, it can be hard to keep up. Of course the advances in technology, music, film, television, fashion and beauty are remarkable, amazing even, but sometimes it feels like we’re in a fast car without brakes, as our ‘throw-away’ culture expands. As far as our culture is concerned though, it’s hard to put your finger on what will be the memorable bands, TV shows and trends that we’ll still be thinking about in twenty years time because there’s so much variety out there.

Maybe this decade might just be known as the age of the individual. What will we be remembered for? I have no idea. Unless you’re on ‘That’s So Raven’, it’s impossible to tell what we’ll be thinking in the future and how things will change, but in the meantime we can simply try to stand out and make something interesting for them to put in the history textbooks next century.